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James T. Kirk
"Don't let them promote you. Don't let them transfer you. Don't let them do anything that takes you off the bridge of that ship because while you're there, you can make a difference." - James T. Kirk, 2371 James Tiberius Kirk was arguably the most famous and highly-decorated starship captain in the history of Starfleet. Over the span of three decades in the later 23rd century, he commanded the Starfleet Constitution Class starships USS Enterprise and USS Enterprise-A, serving Federation interests as an explorer, soldier, time-traveler, and diplomat. Early History James Tiberius ("Jim") Kirk was a Human descendant of European settlers on Earth's American continent, who pioneered the western frontiers of the United States of America in the 19th century. He was born on March 22nd, 2233 (Stardate 1277.1), in Iowa on Earth, the son of George and Winona Kirk. His mother and father were serving on board the USS Kelvin under the command of Captain Richard Robau while Winona was pregnant with him. His parents named him after his maternal grandfather, James, and his paternal grandfather, Tiberius. In 2246, Kirk was living on the planet Tarsus IV during a food crisis that was starving the colony of eight thousand people. Governor Kodos, sympathetic to old eugenics philosophies, tried to save a portion of his colony by killing the four thousand colonists he deemed least desirable or able to survive. Kodos was unaware of the imminent arrival of relief ships. The thirteen-year-old Jim Kirk was one of only nine eyewitnesses to the massacre. Starfleet Academy By 2250, Kirk returned to Earth to start his training at Starfleet Academy in San Francisco, thanks to some assistance from a man named Mallory. He later credited his father as his inspiration for joining Starfleet. Kirk's academic studies introduced him to men he encountered later in his career. Among his more prominent teachers was John Gill, the noted professor of history and cultural observer. Captain Garth of Izar's exploits were required reading for cadets, and the famous captain joined Kirk's pantheon of heroes. Another subject, the "Pasteur of archaeological medicine", Dr. Roger Korby, became a man Kirk wanted to meet. Kirk began a friendship with instructor Lieutenant Ben Finney that continued into their service together aboard the USS Republic. Kirk and underclassman Gary Mitchell became fast friends after Mitchell's admission to the Academy. Mitchell later served under Kirk as helmsman aboard the USS Enterprise. During command training, Kirk confronted the Kobayashi Maru scenario, a simulation used to evaluate a student's reactions to a "no-win" battle and rescue situation. Kirk refused to accept his first two defeats. Before his third attempt, Kirk secretly reprogrammed the simulation computer, consequently becoming the only cadet in Academy history to beat the "no-win" scenario, and earning a commendation for original thinking. Junior Officer Kirk was commissioned as an officer in the Federation Starfleet with the serial number SC937-0176CEC. In the early 2250s, he served as an ensign, along with his friend Lt. Ben Finney, aboard the USS Republic. Finney made a mistake nearly catastrophic to the ship, and the incident was logged by Kirk, resulting in his friend's reprimand and fall to the bottom of the promotion list. Upon graduating from the Academy, Kirk began service under Captain Garrovick. Kirk's first deep space assignment was as a lieutenant aboard Garrovick's USS Farragut, serving as a tactical officer. As a young lieutenant in 2255, Kirk was assigned to command his first planetary survey mission, on Neural. Kirk met and befriended one of the planet's natives, the Hill man Tyree. His report described a primitive but promising culture, and Starfleet endorsed his recommended policy of non-interference. The Farragut engaged the dikironium cloud creature at planet Tycho IV in 2257. Captain Garrovick and two hundred of the ship's crew were killed by the creature. Farragut's record tapes of the event included Lieutenant Kirk insisting upon blaming himself for the disaster, citing his delay in firing the ship's phaser banks at the creature as he lost consciousness. The Farragut's executive officer disagreed, stating, "Lieutenant Kirk is a fine young officer who performed with uncommon bravery." USS Enterprise Kirk's Starfleet service through the late 2250s and early 2260s was rewarded with a rapid rise through the ranks. In 2264, at 31 years of age, he was promoted to captain and assumed command of the Constitution Class starship USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), after Christopher Pike. Kirk famously commanded the Enterprise and her namesake over the course of three decades, but it was her historic five-year mission from 2265 to 2270 that made him a legend in space exploration. In addition to his overall mission statement, "to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life, etc.", Kirk received standing orders to investigate all quasars, and quasar-like phenomena. Kirk's living quarters aboard the Enterprise were on Deck 5, room "3F 121". During this historic mission, Kirk violated the Prime Directive on at least one occasion in order to ensure the survival of the Pelosian race. Years prior to this, Kirk also prevented the extinction of the Baezians and the Chenari. Later Career The USS Enterprise returned to Earth in 2270. Kirk's successful mission resulted in his promotion to rear admiral (making him the youngest admiral in Starfleet history at age 37 and a posting as Chief of Starfleet Operations at Starfleet Headquarters in San Francisco for the following two and a half years. Kirk recommended Willard Decker to replace him as Enterprise captain while the ship underwent an extensive refit at the San Francisco Fleet Yards. In the early 2270s, Earth was threatened by the approaching entity V'Ger, an energy cloud assimilating information from (and destroying) objects in its path. The only starship positioned to intercept it was the Enterprise, her refit nearly complete but still awaiting trial runs. After convincing Admiral Nogura that he was the best man to meet the threat, Kirk rushed the Enterprise into service, assuming the rank of captain for the duration of the mission. Decker regarded Kirk's command as an insult and a mistake, and pointed to his recent desk service and unfamiliarity with the ship's new systems, but the younger man fulfilled his duty as first officer. The entity proved to be the 20th century NASA space probe Voyager 6, having amassed great power and self-awareness in its travels. Kirk granted Decker's wish to merge with the V'Ger entity through the simulacrum of his lover Ilia, thereby uniting V'Ger's mechanical nature with its Human origins. The union resulted in the birth of a radically new, and benign, lifeform. Admiral Kirk kept his flag on the Enterprise, commanding her through the 2270s. Kirk retired from Starfleet (albeit briefly) in 2281 to pursue a number of personal goals and affairs. Kirk returned to Starfleet in 2284 and took a position in the admiralty, supervising command-track cadets at Starfleet Academy among his duties. The lack of a center seat gnawed at him, until he began to express discontent in his latest posting. If only for the chance to be back in space on his beloved former ship, he eagerly boarded the Enterprise, now commanded by Captain Spock, as an observer to a cadet training cruise. Khan Noonien Singh escaped from his exile on Ceti Alpha V by hijacking the USS Reliant, leading to his theft of the Genesis Device from the Regula I space station. Alerted by a call from Dr. Carol Marcus, Enterprise changed course to investigate. Despite Kirk's (somewhat half hearted) protests, Spock insisted on deferring his command to Admiral Kirk, quipping that as a Vulcan "he had no ego to bruise" (in a possible reference to Captain Decker's less than favorable response at passing command to Kirk). The subsequent engagement with his old enemy was tumultuous for Kirk, including a meeting with his estranged son, David Marcus, and the death of his friend of twenty years, Spock. Kirk's return to Earth in 2285 was solemn. The loss of Spock affected Kirk deeply, and McCoy began to show signs of mental illness. Planning to return to the Genesis Planet after his battle-damaged starship was fully repaired, Kirk's hopes were dashed when Commander, Starfleet Admiral Morrow announced that the Enterprise would be decommissioned. Ambassador Sarek approached Kirk, leading to the discovery of Spock's katra surviving in McCoy. Kirk's senior officers rallied to him, conspiring to rescue McCoy and steal the Enterprise from Earth Spacedock in order to recover Spock's body from the Genesis planet and to bring it, and his katra, to Vulcan. At the Genesis planet, a Klingon Bird-of-Prey's attack left the Enterprise disabled. After setting an auto-destruct sequence, Kirk and his crew abandoned the ship for the surface. The Enterprise was destroyed, taking a Klingon boarding party along with it. Finding Spock's body reanimated by Genesis, Kirk took the Bird-of-Prey to Vulcan, where Spock's katra and body were reunited. After three months on Vulcan, Kirk and his crew departed (aboard the Bird-of-Prey re-named HMS Bounty) for Earth, to face their charges of violating nine Starfleet General orders and regulations. During the voyage, a mysterious probe besieged Earth and communicated only in whale song. After answering the planetary distress signal and determining the probe's objective, Kirk used the slingshot effect to take the Bounty back in time to 1986 San Francisco. With the help of cetacean biologist Dr. Gillian Taylor, Kirk successfully obtained the humpback whales George and Gracie and returned with them to 2286. By providing the whales that could answer the probe's query, Kirk redeemed Humanity's extermination of a sentient species, and saved Earth from an environmental catastrophe. USS Enterprise-A Following the Whale Probe incident, the Federation president declared to Kirk, "we are forever in your debt". In light of their recent heroics, all charges facing his crew were dismissed, but one remained against Admiral Kirk: disobeying the orders of a superior officer. Kirk's "punishment" was a permanent reduction in rank to captain and a return to the duty that had served the Federation so well, starship command. He was assigned to another Constitution-class starship, the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A), in 2286. He commanded the Enterprise-A for the next seven years. Kirk's career culminated in 2293, when the Enterprise-A was assigned to escort the Klingon Chancellor Gorkon to Earth for a peace conference. Kirk opposed the peace initiative covertly negotiated by Spock, and especially resented that he was chosen to be the Federation's olive branch. A cabal of Federation and Klingon officials instigated an attack on Kronos One that appeared to come from the Enterprise-A, and assassinated Gorkon. Kirk and McCoy were arrested by the Klingons, who tried and convicted them for the murder of Gorkon, sentencing them to the Rura Penthe penal asteroid. In violation of orders and treaties, Spock took the Enterprise-A into Klingon space, eluded detection and rescued Kirk and McCoy. Following his victory over General Chang at the Battle of Khitomer, Kirk saved the Federation president from assassination, and the historic Khitomer Conference continued. After a final joy-ride on the heading "second star to the right, and straight on till morning," the Enterprise-A was decommissioned, and Kirk retired permanently from Starfleet. The Nexus and Death Shortly after retirement, Kirk joined his friends Montgomery Scott and Pavel Chekov as the honored guests of Captain John Harriman on the maiden voyage of the Excelsior Class starship USS Enterprise-B. The event, featuring a media frenzy surrounding Kirk, was little more than a ceremonial cruise, as the Enterprise-B was not yet fully crewed or equipped for regular duty. Soon after departure, the ship received a distress signal from two Whorfin-class ships transporting El Aurian refugees, trapped in an energy distortion called the Nexus. With the advice of Kirk, and the help of Scotty and Chekov, the rescue mission was a partial success, but the Enterprise-B succumbed to the Nexus' gravimetric field. Declining Harriman's offer to take command, Kirk volunteered to modify the ship's deflector relays and successfully enabled the ship's escape, but not before a burst of energy from the Nexus breached the secondary hull. Kirk was lost, and presumed dead. Discovered by Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise-D, Kirk agreed to leave his idyllic but unsatisfying existence in the Nexus, to help Picard stop the deranged scientist Tolian Soran from destroying the Veridian system. As Kirk explained to Picard, the main reason he always returned to the command chair of the Enterprise was that it was only there that Kirk could truly make a difference, and he advised Picard to refuse anything Starfleet offered him that would take him away from the current Enterprise, because he would thus lose the ability to make a difference in the universe. Kirk sacrificed his life to save the inhabitants of Veridian IV, as well as the crew of the Enterprise-D, climbing along a precariously-balanced metal bridge in order to grab the control panel necessary to disable the missile that Soran would have used, the bridge subsequently falling down a steep cliff when its support beams broke. His last words, spoken to Picard after being assured that he had made a difference, were to comment that his help was the least he could do for the captain of the Enterprise, as well as to assure Picard that "It was... fun. Oh my...". Captain Picard buried Kirk in a simple stone cairn on a Veridian III mountain top, echoing the burial of his friend, Gary Mitchell, 106 years before. Category:Deceased Characters Category:Starfleet Characters Category:Human Characters